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VIC FIRTH SIGNATURE ARTIST ABE LABORIEL

Excerpted from moderndrummer.com
When you meet with Abe Laboriel Jr., you can't help but smile the entire time. It's not just hearing about his success stories, it's that his presence exudes a glow and inner kindness that is both spiritual and contagious. That comes from more than the happiness of a successful career, one that's found the drummer employed by such artists as Paul McCartney, Sting, Chris Isaak, Melissa Etheridge, Jennifer Love Hewitt, k.d. lang, Manhattan Transfer, Natalie Cole, Duran Duran, Dianne Reeves, Justo Almario, Jonatha Brooke, and his father Abraham Laboriel. That kind of contentment comes from upbringing and an inner peace.

Laboriel is a self-admitted workaholic. But when you ask him what the down sides to that disease are, he says with a laugh and a sparkle in his eyes, "I haven't found any yet." Abe does concede, though, that he could use a vacation, having not taken one in about five years. But a career in music is what he's chosen, and it seems that it all just gets better and better.

Abe's father, session master bassist Abraham Laboriel Sr., has worked with a mind-blowing list of artists and accompanied most of the great drummers of the past several decades. In turn, he infused his son with a respect and love for music--not to mention opportunities that could not be bought.

Abe Jr. began messing around on the drums at age four, and by ten he was taking lessons from drumming great Alex Acuña. Naturally, Abe was also able to watch his father's sessions in action. During his junior year in high school, he attended the now defunct Dick Grove School of Music, where he studied with Peter Donald. In 1989, his last year of high school, Abe had progressed to such a degree that he was honored by the National Foundation For The Advancement Of The Arts and Down Beat magazine.